Altrincham F.C.

Altrincham
Full name Altrincham Football Club
Nickname(s) Robins, Alty
Founded 1891
Ground Moss Lane, Altrincham
Capacity 6,085 (1,154 seated)
Chairman Grahame Rowley
Manager Lee Sinnott
League Conference Premier
2014–15 Conference Premier, 17th

Altrincham Football Club is an English association football club based in Altrincham, Greater Manchester. The club participates in the Conference Premier, the fifth tier of English football. The club returns to the Conference Premier for the 2014–15 season after winning the Conference North playoffs. The team is notable for its performance in various FA cups and a history of advancing much further in the competition than the far majority of other semi-professional or non-professional teams.

History

Playing in the Cheshire County League for most of their early history, Altrincham achieved little success until the 1960s, when Altrincham director Noel White hired Freddie Pye as manager. A key turning point in the history of the club is often cited as the signing of Jackie Swindells in 1965, who in his first full season (1965–66) scored a phenomenal 82 goals in 63 games for the club helping Altrincham to the first of two back-to-back Cheshire League titles. The 1968–69 season saw Altrincham join The Northern Premier League (NPL) as founder members.

After 11 seasons in the NPL, Altrincham joined the Alliance Premier League (now the Football Conference) as founder members at the beginning of the 1979–80 season, going on to win the league in its first two seasons. Despite their success Altrincham failed to gain election to the Football League on both occasions due to the voting system in place at the time. In 1980, Altrincham fell short of election to the Football League by the narrowest of margins.[1]

It wasn't until 1987 that automatic promotion was awarded to the league; since then Altrincham have only challenged for promotion in the 1990–91 season, eventually finishing 3rd behind Barnet and Colchester United, despite having promotion in their hands with three games left.[2] Much of Altrincham's success in that season was credited to the goal-scoring prowess of Ken McKenna who scored 22 goals in the league, picking up the player of the season award in the progress.[3]

Altrincham never regained their success of the 1970s and 1980s and in 1997 they were relegated from the top flight of non-league football to the Northern Premier League for the first time in their history. They won that the NPL title two years later, only to go back down again after just one season in the Conference. It was five years before they gained promotion again, in 2005 as winners of the Conference North/Conference South playoffs beating Eastbourne Borough of Conference South at The Britannia Stadium in the final match.

Exeter City vs Altrincham, a Conference National fixture played on 19 August 2006

Altrincham were uniquely reprieved from relegation for three successive seasons (2005–06, 2006–07 and 2007–08) as a result of other clubs' issues. In the 2005–06 season, Altrincham finished 18th in the Conference, outside of the relegation zone. However, they were found to have fielded an ineligible player, James Robinson, for 15 matches, during which he scored six goals and Altrincham won 18 points. This led to an 18-point deduction. An appeal to the FA on 23 May failed, which meant that Altrincham finished in bottom place. However, with Canvey Island resigning from the league and Scarborough losing their entire points total for breach of the league's rules on club ownership, Altrincham remained in the Conference.[4]

The 2006–07 season saw Altrincham "relegated" on the final day of the season, after a 0–0 draw with Aldershot Town,[5] although they were later reprieved when Boston United (relegated from Football League Two) were refused permission to play in the Conference National and ordered to play in the Conference North instead, as a result of financial problems.[6] In 2007–08, they finished in the Conference relegation zone for the third successive season but were yet again reprieved from relegation when Halifax Town were forced into liquidation.

The 2008–09 season proved to be a much better campaign for Altrincham, with the club spending much of the season in mid-table, and they eventually achieved safety from relegation with two games to spare. Altrincham did even better in 2009–10, challenging for a play-off spot early in the campaign and finishing in a relatively safe 14th place. However, the club had a poor start to the 2010–11 season, earning only one point from their first eight games, which resulted in the sacking of long-time manager Graham Heathcoate in September. Ken McKenna replaced Heathcoate and the team's form gradually improved as the season went on, but their awful start cost them in the end and they were relegated in 22nd place on the final day of the season. Ironically, had they finished one place higher they would have earned a fourth reprieve from relegation due to Rushden & Diamonds being expelled from the Conference because of financial problems, but this time it was to be Southport who were reprieved. After Altrincham's relegation McKenna left the club.[7]

Former Farsley Celtic and Port Vale manager Lee Sinnott became the club's new manager for the Conference North Campaign, with former Hyde manager Neil Tolson his assistant

In 2009, Ricky Ponting, captain of the Australian Cricket team, became a major shareholder of the club after striking up a friendship with club Chairman Geoff Goodwin, whose Eccles-based coach company Go Goodwins have the ECB contract to drive the Australia team coach.[8][9]

Rivals

Altrincham's traditional rivals are Macclesfield Town, a rivalry dating back to when both clubs were in the Cheshire League, and later the Northern Premier League and Conference. The clubs share the same division this season (2014–15) for the first time since 1996. A more recent rivalry has developed with Northwich Victoria who have been in and out of the Conference in recent times. The intensity of this rivalry was epitomised in Altrincham's 3–0 defeat of Northwich at Moss Lane of Boxing Day 2006. Despite this, many players have played for both clubs over the years, most notably Greg Young, Ryan Brown, and Lee Elam.

Players

Current squad

As of 28 April 2015.[10]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
1 England GK Stuart Coburn
2 England DF Shaun Densmore (captain)
3 England DF Adam Griffin
4 England MF Jake Moult
5 England DF Gianluca Havern
6 England DF Scott Leather
7 Northern Ireland FW James Lawrie
8 England MF Simon Richman
10 England FW Damian Reeves
11 England MF Nicky Clee
No. Position Player
15 England MF Greg Wilkinson
16 England DF Tom Marshall
19 England MF Ryan Crowther
20 England FW Joel Swift
21 England MF Sam Heathcote
22 England MF Rob Gilroy
23 England DF David Brown
24 England GK Josh Samberg
26 England MF Jordan Sinnott

Club records

Altrincham's most expensively signed player was Keith Russell, who joined them from Blackpool in the summer of 1998 for £15,000. Their most expensively sold player was Ian Craney, who joined Swansea City for £150,000 from Accrington Stanley in January 2007. Altrincham received £75,000 of this figure due to a sell-on clause in his contract.

Altrincham's record attendance was 10,275 for a friendly against Sunderland on 28 February 1925.

Their top scorer was Jackie Swindells, who scored 56 goals in 42 games in the 1965–66 season.[11]

FA Cup giant-killers

Altrincham have a proud history of giant-killing in the FA Cup, holding the record of knocking out more League sides than any other team that has spent its history playing non-League. Sixteen FA Cup victories against Football League clubs have been recorded by non-league Altrincham, as follows:

  1. 1921–22 Tranmere Rovers
  2. 1965–66 Rochdale
  3. 1973–74 Hartlepool
  4. 1974–75 Scunthorpe United
  5. 1979–80 Crewe Alexandra
  6. 1979–80 Rotherham United
  7. 1980–81 Scunthorpe United
  8. 1981–82 Sheffield United
  9. 1981–82 York City
  10. 1982–83 Rochdale
  11. 1984–85 Blackpool
  12. 1985–86 Blackpool
  13. 1985–86 Birmingham City
  14. 1988–89 Lincoln City
  15. 1992–93 Chester City
  16. 1994–95 Wigan Athletic

Altrincham, uniquely for a non-League team, made the third round of the FA Cup on four consecutive occasions between 1979 and 1982. Altrincham's FA Cup record against top league opposition has seen them defeat Birmingham City away in 1986 (the second and most recent time a non-league club has beaten a top league club on their own ground until Luton Town beat Norwich City in 2013). They drew with Everton in 1975 and Tottenham Hotspur in 1979, Altrincham lost the replays in both cases. The 1992 giant-killing of Chester City at Moss Lane is remembered for a spectacular goal by Clive Freeman.

Honours

League history

Former players

1. Players that have played/managed in the Football League or any foreign equivalent to this level (i.e. fully professional league).
2. Players with full international caps.
3. Players that hold a club record or have captained the club.

References

  1. ↑
  2. ↑
  3. ↑
  4. ↑ "Scarborough relegation confirmed". BBC Sport. 3 June 2006.
  5. ↑ "Altrincham 0–0 Aldershot". BBC News. 28 April 2007.
  6. ↑ "Boston suffer new demotion blow". BBC News. 10 June 2007.
  7. ↑ "Manager McKenna leaves Altrincham". BBC News.
  8. ↑ [http://media.theage.com.au/sport/sports-hq/pontings-pommy-soccer-secret-667216.html – "pontings pommy soccer secret"]
  9. ↑ "Sinnott appointed Altrincham boss". BBC News. 24 May 2011.
  10. ↑ "First team". Altrincham F.C. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
  11. ↑ http://www.lusa.u-net.com/legend2.htm

External links